The effects of the Kaikoura Earthquake on businesses and the importance of having a Travel Management Company during such an event

The effects of the Kaikoura Earthquake on businesses and the importance of having a Travel Management Company during such an event

Videos18 Nov 2016

This month the news everyone has been watching – if not living – is the massive earthquake felt throughout the North and South Island.

While our hearts and thoughts go out to those impacted by the quake, from a business perspective FCM have been in full crisis management mode. This is not only because we have offices and staff in both Wellington and Christchurch but because so many of our customers have their homes, businesses and livelihoods in the affected regions.

Using a TMC can help lessen the impacts of travel in such times.

These past weeks:

Our Crisis management team (with after hours) went into action identifying those effected - information then provided to key contacts.

Our Corporate product team and Account Managers reached out to suppliers such as airlines and hotels for updates as to if they were open, operating as usual and if not, what alternative arrangements could be made. This Information provided to both FCM Staff and clients.

Our WLG office closed down for the week and phones were diverted to CHC and AKL FCM offices. 10 other Corporate NZ locations were put on alert for diverts to had we needed to (thankfully we didn’t).

FCM staff, once they had made sure their own families were safe and sound then resumed work via home access to keep their customers moving.

Our amazing CHC team surprised us by putting everything back to rights in the office during the night and were back the office the next day helping out the rest of the country.

FCM bolstered our afterhours resource .

There were challenges but we've had some phenomenal feedback and stories from this event. A particularly stirring story involved one of our clients - A Bank, that needed to get cash to Kaikoura. Our FCM Account Manager sourced a chopper out of CHC to meet the security officers to get the cash in and in turn the banks staff out.

Comparing Monday on Monday pre/post quake our afterhours team had 4 times as many calls and overall day/night teams 3 times. With calls totaling overall 26.4 hrs of talk time on Monday.

Our General Manager, Andy Jack, shared insight with NZ Herald Focus around the effects the Kaikoura Earthquake has had on businesses and their travel plans, as well as the importance of having a Travel Management Company during such an event.

Watch it here:

FCM's Andy Jack talks to NZH Focus about the effects of the Kaikoura Earthquake on businesses

Andy shares insight with NZ Herald Focus around the effects the Kaikoura Earthquake has had on businesses and their travel plans, as well as the importance of having a Travel Management Company during such an event.